‘They Are Missing, Maybe Alive But Our Govts Have Forgotten Them’

NEW DELHI: So many years after the Vietnam War, the US military continues to search for those still missing, or for the remains of those killed. India seems curiously devoid of any such sentiment. How else, asks writer Chander Suta Dogra, can one explain the relative indifference with which India has approached the issue of its missing prisoners of war, missing in the 1965 and 1971 wars. On Books Corner, Dogra talks to StratNews Global’s Surya Gangadharan about her book Missing in Action: The Prisoners Who Never Came Back. Despite evidence over the years that some of them are still alive, the relatives aided by the rather sporadic efforts of the government of the day, have attempted to bring some closure in their lives. To no avail. In fact, Dogra’s own search for answers has led her to the unwelcome realisation that many of the prisoners may be held as spies in Pakistani jails, and India is probably doing the same.